Court awards record payout from Holocaust fund
The heirs of two Holocaust victims have been awarded SFr26.45 million ($21.9 million) in a case brought against an unnamed Swiss bank.
It is the largest single payout to date to come from a $1.25 billion settlement reached in 1998 between Holocaust survivors, Jewish organisations and leading Swiss banks.
A court in New York awarded the sum on Wednesday, but did not name the Swiss bank involved in the proceedings.
District Judge Edward Korman approved the payout based on the recommendation of a court-appointed tribunal that disburses funds set aside under the settlement.
Holocaust survivors and their families had taken legal action against Swiss banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse, accusing them of handing over to the Nazis hundreds of million of dollars worth of Jewish holdings.
Wednesday’s claim – the highest ever – was brought by Maria Altmann and about two dozen unnamed heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer and Otto Pick, both major shareholders in a large sugar refinery in Austria before the Second World War. Altmann, who lives in Los Angeles, is the 89-year-old niece of Bloch-Bauer.
The tribunal said that while the $21.9 million award was “unique” in size, the claim was “merely a striking example of the widespread betrayal of Jewish clients by Swiss banks”.
Altmann’s lawyer, E Randol Schoenberg, said that his client was very pleased with the settlement. “It’s a very generous award,” he said.
Nazi takeover
With Austria on the brink of a Nazi takeover in 1938, Bloch-Bauer, Pick and their families sought to protect their interest in the refinery by transferring their shares to a bank in Zurich.
The bank guaranteed that the shares would not be sold without the families’ consent. But after family members were arrested or fled the country, the banks bowed to pressure to transfer the shares to a German investor with Nazi connections.
“Having marketed themselves to the Jews of Europe as a safe haven for their property, Swiss banks repeatedly turned Jewish-owned property over to Nazis in order to curry favour with them,” said the tribunal.
No records of the Jewish shareholders’ deal with the bank were found in its files, and they are thought to have been destroyed. The tribunal therefore relied on documents provided by the heirs and independent archives.
Swiss banks have so far paid out $254 million to Holocaust survivors and their heirs, with the average award amounting to $130,000. Lawyers said that the previous highest payout was $4 million.
Roger Witten, a lawyer for UBS and Credit Suisse, told the New York Times that assertions of systematic appropriation of the assets of Holocaust victims and other wrongdoing by Swiss banks had been rejected by several commissions.
“These allegations are false,” he said.
swissinfo with agencies
Wednesday’s SFr26.45 million ($21.9 million) payout was the largest so far to Holocaust victims by Swiss banks.
It was part of a $1.25 billion settlement made between Holocaust survivors and Swiss banks in 1998.
Of this sum, $254 million has been paid out so far.
The average award is usually around $130,000.
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